After agreeing with Pietrangelo, Vegas quickly agreed to trade recently expendable defenseman Nate Schmidt to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for a third-round pick in 2022. Schmidt, 29, is signed at a $5.95 million cap struck through 2025. The Golden Knights had little take advantage of in that deal and the Canucks were prepared to assist them out of a crunch in exchange for great value.
After signing goaltender Robin Lehner to a five-year extension previously this offseason, the Golden Knights might likewise be wanting to move Marc-Andre Fleury ($ 7 million on the cap) soon..
The finalizing put Vegas over its offseason cap limitation, which indicated it required to quickly make a matching relocation in order to release up cap space before the league can approve the signing and make it official.
The Vegas Golden Knights have protected their latest huge catch: Alex Pietrangelo. The Golden Knights won the bidding for the veteran defenseman, who was largely considered as the reward of this years free firm class, by offering him a seven-year agreement worth $61.6 million– a typical yearly worth of $8.8 million.
The deal makes Pietrangelo, 30, the fifth-highest-paid defenseman in the NHL. He originates from St. Louis, where he invested the first 12 years of his career after being drafted 4th overall by the Blues in 2008. Ever since, Pietrangelo has actually established himself as one of the very best and most reputable defensemen in the league, making 3 All-Star elections and ending up top-five in Norris voting 3 times– including last season.
He also took control of as captain of the Blues in 2016 and was the first gamer to raise the franchises very first Stanley Cup in 2019.
Pietrangelo has been linked to Vegas because the start of free firm (the marketplace opened last Friday) however word of the finalizing still came as somewhat of a surprise thanks to the magnitude of the deal– its the greatest contract distributed in a down market this offseason– and due to the fact that the Golden Knights remain in a tight area against the income cap.
The Golden Knights have actually existed just since 2017 however the group currently has a well-earned reputation of being aggressive, bold bidders on the gamer acquisition market to improve right away, and this signing is just the latest example of that. Vegas has actually made it to a minimum of the Western Conference finals in 2 of its very first three seasons and clearly the front workplace is trying to profit from the present window and put the roster over the top, even if they have to spend for that aggressiveness later.
